Variety of topics have been applied on stamps to create the colorful of stamps in the world.

Sunday, 16 December 2012

Sherlock Holmes

The author, (Sir) Arthur Conan-Doyle wrote his first Holmes story, A Study In Scarlet, in 1886. Sherlock Holmes, a fictitious character was based on a real man, Dr Joseph Bell, a renown forensic scientist at Edinburgh University whom Conan-Doyle studied under.

On October 29, 2010, Alderney Post , pay tribute his inspiration to many crime novelist, issued a set of six stamps feature his stories.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, born on 22 May 1859, is best known crime novelist for his famous creation Sherlock Holmes.

Following his term at university, Conan Doyle was employed as a doctor on the Greenland whaler Hope of Peterhead, in 1880, and, after his graduation, as a ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast, in 1881.He completed his doctorate on the subject of tabes dorsalis in 1885 .

His first significant piece, A Study in Scarlet, was taken by Ward Lock & Co on 20 November 1886, giving Doyle £25 for all rights to the story.

The piece appeared later that year in the Beeton's Christmas Annual and received good reviews in The Scotsman and the Glasgow Herald. The story featured the first appearance of Watson and Sherlock Holmes, partially modeled after his former university teacher Joseph Bell.

In May 1891, whilst writing some of the early Sherlock Holmes short stories, Conan Doyle was struck by influenza and for a number of days it was a matter of life or death. Once his health had improved he decided to abandon his medical career in favor of his literary one.

The first collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories entitled "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," were published in 1892 and were greeted with huge acclaim. However, wishing to concentrate on writing historical novels, Conan Doyle wrote of Holmes' death in "The Final Problem".

In 1903, Conan Doyle published his first Holmes short story in ten years, "The Adventure of the Empty House", in which it was explained that only Moriarty had fallen; but since Holmes had other dangerous enemies—especially Colonel Sebastian Moran—he had arranged to also be perceived as dead.

Holmes ultimately was featured in a total of 56 short stories and four Conan Doyle novels, and the collection is known as The Cannon.